Biography

British politician who became the first female Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and was one of the most powerful women in the world in the latter part of the 20th century.

The woman who would be later nicknamed "The Iron Lady" was born Margaret Hilda Roberts in a flat above the family grocery store in a town some 100 miles north of London. Her father went on to own two grocery stores and was active in politics. She acquired a love for music from her mother, a dressmaker. She has an older sister, Muriel. A self-confident child, she skipped a grade in elementary school and won a scholarship to Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ Schools at the age of ten. She almost always led her class academically, and also served as captain of games and vice-captain of the hockey team. During holidays, she helped out at the family grocery store, and spent spare time reading about politics and international affairs. She sat in on court sessions over which her father presided, studied the piano, and took private elocution lessons. During the 1935 general election, she ran errands for the local Conservative party organization, her first real exposure to politics.

She was educated at Somerville College at the University of Oxford, where she studied chemistry and X-ray crystallography, sang in the Bach choir and kept up with politics. In 1946, she was elected president of the Oxford University Conservative Association. She graduated with a B. S. degree in natural science in 1947, and has an M. A. degree from Oxford.

She worked as a research chemist developing plastics from 1947 to 1951. In 1949, she was invited to become the Tory candidate for Parliament from Dartford, Kent during a forthcoming election. She didn’t win, but her name became more known.

In 1951, she began studying law in her spare time, and in 1953, having studied for the bar, she became a tax lawyer specializing in taxation and patent law. By 1957, she wanted to renew her election bid to Parliament and ran in Finchley, an upper-middle-class north London constituency.

She joined the Conservative party in Britain, and was elected to the House of Commons on 10/08/1959. In 1961, she was appointed Joint Parliamentary Secretary to the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, where she remained until 1964. Following a lull when the opposite party returned to power, she became minister of education and science from 1970 to 1974 under Edward Heath, provoking a storm of protest by abolishing free milk in the schools. After the defeat of the Conservatives in 1974, she challenged Heath for the party leadership and won the post on 2/11/1975. On 5/04/1979, she was elected prime minister, leading her party to victory with an agenda to reverse Britain’s economic decline and reduce the role of government: It was the largest switch in votes since 1945.

On 4/02/1982, when Argentine forces occupied the Falkland Islands, which were claimed by both Argentina and England, Thatcher’s government defeated the Argentines. Her Falkland Islands policy provided the Conservatives with a sweeping victory and she began her second term as prime minister 9/09/1982. In October 1984, she barely escaped injury when a bomb planted by Irish extremists exploded in the Grand Hotel during a conference.

She was victorious on 6/11/1987 and became the first British prime minister in the 20th century to serve three consecutive terms. But in 1990, her tax policy and reluctance to commit England to full economic integration with Europe inspired a challenge to her leadership. She resigned on 11/22/1990, and was succeeded as party leader and prime minister by protégé John Major.

She married Denis Thatcher, heir to a prosperous paint and wallpaper firm, in 1951. He was a fellow member of the Dartford Conservative organization and took pride in her political ambitions. In May 1953, they had twin children, Mark, a London accountant, and Carol, who completed her law studies in 1975.

Her new book, "Statecraft" was published in February 2002. During the early months of the year, Thatcher had a series of small strokes and on 3/19/2002, on her doctor's orders, she cancelled a speaking engagement as the first step in cutting down on her public activities.

The husband of the former U.K. Prime Minister died on June 26, 2003 in London. Sir Denis Thatcher was 88 years old and had been in poor health. Just five months prior to his death, he had heart bypass surgery.

Thatcher suffered from poor health for several years before her death. On 21 December 2012, she underwent an operation to remove a growth from her bladder. Thatcher died in the morning of 8 April 2013 in London after suffering a stroke. Lord Bell, Thatcher's spokesman, confirmed her death at 12:52 BST (11:52 UTC) by press release